The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 9, 1898, Page 19

THE SAN FRA NCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 9, 1898 19 WONDER SKULLS OF HUMAN BEINGSAND THE TUSKS OF A MAW- MOTH DUG OUT OF A MINE COULTERVI LLE SKULL. the Coulterville skull eatest resemblance is It is wt position that its gr the eyes—a modern date. paratively i JAVA SKULL. is compared with the Java skull in this apparent. Note the protuberances above that distinguishes the very oldest skulls from those of a com- *F—= WO human skulls and part of the remains of a mammoth have been dug up of the > ra foothills The Dbe: sts are b cate that t to the scientific e the f closely T over 1 est aj ing 1 It pre ach to rer onl d t ville bones. Ch wered o allay their to river. white over- did not real- but he od-lookin a n was left of th mammoth. d to pass that Aiw the value of ntific point of or the Acad- Chinese never it, but the bones they so zea- y pi into the river were of more value than any ordinary pocket ched ©of gold they could have found. They were worth nearer $10,000 than the bit *'of gold in the gravel ar them. To the ordinary obse r there would be little about these fractured bones to for there are lots of s in the world that look like t ct that the human d together with the the same bed of them at once to throw 1 in this vi A numbx ene age. men who have clare them to be nce to paleon- , it is a close question e not of greater impor- s that have ever ifornia, not even bar- alaveras skull. generally place eir specimens it is nds of dollars the Acad- will be called the Coulterville skull was i ummer it was unearth- €d many vears ago. Its true value was ot discovered till a quick-witted sci- t caught sight of it recently. where the skull w. found {s ' now a ranch owned by C. L. Mast, but at one time it was a gravel mine 1 by William Curtis, who recol- perfectly the day the skulls were unearthed. The exact location of the £pot is about three miles from Coulter- ville, d in the banks formed by a hend of the Merced River. ‘Aecording to Mr. Curtis’ story, he ‘had -a number of Chinese working for him at.hydraulic mining. One morn- ing his foreman came to him and told bim that there w great excitement jwng the Chinese, as they had struck stratum of human remains. Their su- pers + a gited, and some of them wanted to quit the spot at once. Others were for get- ing rid-of the bones as fast as possi- ble. Mr. Curtis hurried to the scene, and thére found the Chinese engaged in ng hur bones and skulls into r. ortunately, all had not d out of the gravel deposit, S le to secure a few which Ne kept as curiosities. At that time he : “had ro idea of their 1 value. ;:The mammoth bones were badly “broken. All the pie were secured and -placed in position, and it was nd that the tusks were about eight et long, indicati that the mam- oth was a young one. “ihis one fact is of the greatest im- ioning the Chinese Mr. Cur- arned that there were over a hun- ‘Gred skulls and any number of other bones in the stratum. Most of these had !J("‘Xl thrown into the river, where they could not be recovered. "Geologic lly, the bones were found ‘embeddedina stratum of gray clay and gravel. They were not more than a fgot above bedrock and about twenty feet . below the surface line when \ the mining commenced. This surface {ine, however, at this point is no in- dication of where it once was. The C-Fivér had been cutting through there -.fbr ages, and the surface must have Heen constantly washing down, so ‘it throw | Before they had | Later | ftious natures were naturally ex- | ] may be that the bones were once a hundred feet or more beneath the sur- face. The stratum where the bones were found was the stratum of the pliocene age—the age of mammoths. But grant- ing that the bones were never more than twenty feet beneath the surface, it is impossible that they could have | | | been buried at that depth by any com- paratively modern romadic tribe. To have moved the gravel bed for the surface over which the bones were spread would have been a herculean task that Californian Indians would not attempt. At the point where the bones were found the gravel bed was being removed by n of the elements, and the indications are that the removing process had been going on for ages. Judging by the topography of the locality, it is most apparent that the bones were buried only a few beneath what was the surface at a time when mammoths roamed over this country and that the stratum of gravel was ages in being deposited. | Granted that the geological | about the bones are correct, there can the hardly be a question but that the skulls | are of the oldest human remains in existence. Mr. Curtis secured about forty skulls. He says they were all exactly the shape of those he has just given to the Academy. For a time he kept his collection of rem: s in his own home, but gradually parted with them to frieads, who wished them for curi- osities. As time p: was reduced to | mammoth’s skuall and tu | Seeing that they were likely to be in- | jurea, ana as curio-hunters were con- | stantly asking for them, he took them to Coulterville and placed them in the 0dd Feilows’ Hall. As they showed signs of going to pieces, they were varnished with a common varnish. This one act has been of incalculable injury to the skulls, as it has filled the structure of the ®one, making it almost impossible to determine the ex- act amount of organic matter still re- maining in it, if, indeed, there is any. The skulls and mammoth bones re- mained unrecognized in the hall in Coulterville until last June. At this time Dr. Eisen of the Academy of Sci- ences happened into the locality while on an expedition in search of speci- mens. As soon as he saw the bones he at once recognized their value and | made efforts to secure them for the Academy. With the assistance of T. J. Goodman and Phil Hope, he has at last been successful. The mammoth bones and skull are safe in the Academy of Sciences, where they are likely to re- main as long as humanity has any in- terest in the peoples of the past. | The finding of the Coulterville skull | and the mammoth’s remains is only another link in the long chain of evi- dences of man’s existence on what is | now the Pacific Slope ages and ages | ago—so long ago that no chronology can compute it. Although it is not generally known, California has produced more undis- | putable proofs of man'’s early existence | than any other part of the world of the | same area. The proof of this would require vol- | umes. 1In the auriferous, gravels along | the western slope of the Sierra foot- | hills skulls and utensils have been found in strata of the oldest forma- | tion together with the bunes of extinet animals. Had this only occurred in one or two instances there might be a possibility that the human remains had been washed in among the mammoth bones by some convulsion of nature of which there is no record. But it so inches | signs | ssed his collection | two skulls and a | happens that the instances can be | counted by the dozens. It is not possi- | bie that this could be due entirely to | chance. That man lived in California at the same time as mammoths is a fact sci- entists no longer dispute. At that period he was a man living as an animal but having a superior intellect. Here was FUL PREHISTORIC BONLES FOUND - IN demonstrated Darwin’s theory of the |found in the foothills of Table Moun- survival of the fittest. While man was | tain some years ago. Its exact loca- much smaller in size and infinitesimal | tion was over a hundred feet beneath in strength to the mammoth, yet he |the surface and with it were also found was able by his superior brain to over- ‘some mammal bones that have never power the monstrous beasts. been identified. There were also a num- The oldest California skull that has | ber of utensils. The age of this skull ever passed the scientific ordeal is|is, of course, mostly conjecture, but known as the Calaveras skull. It was |granting that it lived at the time of most and consequently a low order of intell craniology. interesting. SIDE VIEW OF THE REMARKABLE SKULL UNEARTHED NEAR COULTERVILLE. While this view of the skull does not show the strong resemblance to the Java skull that the crown view does, it is, nevertheless The large arc of the skull line from the eyebrows back to the apex of the skull shows a lack of brain space The other marks of peculiarity wilk most likely open up new fields in the study of AHIE= S IERRAS. MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS OL D ACCORDING TO THE STRATA SURROUND- ING THEM. SIDE VIEW Only the upper portion was found. ation, based on facts, by a number of well-known scientific men. OF JAVA SKULL. The lower portion is an imaginary restor- A congress of eminent paleontologists voted on the identity of this skull, and the majority declared it to be that of a man. the mammoths scientists claim that it must be at least 10,000 years old. In comparison with the Calaveras skull the Coulterville skull is of a much lower order. So, granting that both belonged to the mammoth age, it is much older. But how much older no man can say. The oldest human skull ever found SCENE IN CALIFORNIA DURING THE MAMMOTH AGE. The above picture is drawn from although of inferior physical strength, was able to cope with the mighty beasts of the time. That man overpowered those beasts is conclusively oroven by the fact that the-mammoths became extinct, while man has lived and perpetuated his species. diagrams and studies of some of the most eminent scientists. It shows how man, on the globe is the so-called “missing link” that was unearthed in the island of Java a few years ago by Dr. Eugene Dubois. Thousands of scientists have studied it and have given it a place higher than the apes and much lower | than man. As only the upper portion | of the skull was found, however, thers | has always been a possibility that it | might belong to some distiact species | of gorilla. At any rate the greatest scientists in the world have given it a | distinet position and have named it the Philocanthropist. It i1s in comparison with this skull ! that the Coulterville skull reveals its most wonderful resemblance. Looked at from the side the Coulterville skull { shows considerable lowness of forehead | but not more than many other skuills that have been found. But it is when looked at from the top that the stron; est resemblance comes out. This w he seen by a careful comparison of the two accompanying pictures. The prin- cipal difference between the two skulls | is the greater length of skull of “the missing link.” The enormous ridges of the eyebrows and the narrowness of the skulls at this point are wonderfully alike. The heaviness of the eyebrow ridges in the Coulterville skull give it a distinet characteris that cannot be duplicated in any known skull in Cali- fornia. Professor Marion of the State Uni- versity is greatly interested in the Coul- terville skull and contemplates giving much time to studying it and the lo- cality where it was found during the coming year. “It is the most inter- esting skull I ever saw, from a crani- | ological point of view,” he said, after | a careful examination of it. Dr. Gustav Eisen rates the skull as one of the most important ever found {in California. “That varnish on the | skull is a little confusing,” he said, when speaking of the matter, “but I am firmly convinced that the skull is older than anything that has ever been found in California.” SEALSKIN CARPETS on HER PARLOR FLOORS It has been said that the average woman is never really happy until she has a sealskin jacket. case Mrs. C. A. Lutz, who lives out in the Mission, should be the happiest woman in the world, for she has more sealskins than she knows what to do with. That is, she has more than she knows how to use, as they are gen- erally used by the fair sex of all the world where the skins can be obtained. And so she uses them for carpets. Mrs. Lutz is a pleasant voiced, cheery little woman, and when I asked her to let me see her wonderful collection she parlor. “If you had seen as much of seals and sealskins as I have,” she said, as she saw my look of wonderment, “you wouldn’t be so interested in these.” But I was interested and surprised with the richness of it all. And who would not be? Priceless skins were scattered about as if they much old rag carpet. the room there was the skin of a crea- ture that must have been a monster of his species in his day. About on all sides were others of different sizes and beauty. But a#l were really beautiful. Some were dark and some were of a soft brown. All were as soft as the finest silk, and as they were spread about the room and covered the differ- ent articles of furniture they formed a sight of the rarest kind. Certainly it could not be duplicated in San Fran- cisco. I asked how many rugs she had, but Mrs. Lutz shook her head and said she had not counted for so long that she really did not know. “You see, I lived up in Alaska at one time,” said Mrs. Lutz, “and sealskins have become rather commonplace to me. I really care very little for them.” So you see one can have too much of a good thing, even if that thing is such a costly af- fair as a sealskin. The room itself where the sealskins are is a pretty little affair, and is fur- nished, perhaps, as oddily as it is car- peted. It is full of surprises, and curios of all kinds, from almost every nation under the sun. god peers at you in a rather unpleas- ant manner when you. come in. No wonder the Chinese fear their gods. After you've overcome your desire to turn tail and run, and look at him closely you will appreciate at once the value of a marvelous bit of carving. The Chinese can carve if they can't fight. The mantel is covered with a soft, pretty, glittering bordering material. “Pretty, isn't it?” asks my hostess. “You'd hardly think to look at it that it is made from the intestines of sea lions. See these pretty, soft little feathers on it; these are the feathers If that is lhe? readily complied and led the way to her | were so | In the center of | Here, for instance, a hideous Chinese | of the shagg, a very pretty bird that frequents St. Paul Island. The nat- ives kill them just for these feathers. It seems rather a pity, too, for there is very little tuft on each bird. They say they are the only feathers in the worid | that will bend without breaking. | “My husband had these rugs made while we were at the island. Dr. Lutz was for six years in the employ of the | Alaska Commercial Company, and the | natives would always do their best for | him. See, they have put his initial in the center of almost every one. “I had a box of odd things sent to me just before Christmas. The natives were rather fond of my little girl, and I guess they liked me, too, so every vear they send us a box of things. Here is a baby seal’s head, all ready to be stuffed. Feel the whiskers; stiff, are they not? The Chinese mount them in silver and carry them for toothpicks. These baskets please me just about as much as anything I've received this yvear. You know the art of basket- making is dying out now. They no | longer teach it to the young. | “Yes, I've had some mnovel experi- ences. You have heard, have you not, that if one can but reach the end of a rainbow they would surely discover the fabled pot of gold, too, only I couldn’t | take it away. It was this way. | Coionel Murray, one of the Gov- ernment officials, invited my hus- band and myself to go to the seal rook- eries on the island. No one but a Government official has the righ: to go there. Of course, we were only too de- lighted to accept his invita‘ion, and were soon there. The seals were in good humor, for they allowed us to move among them and even to pat them as we passed. “It had been raining that morning, | and just as we reached the rockeries a rainbow formed just over the island. I walked right to where it ended, among the rookeries. I found the pot of gold. The sad part of it was that although the legend entitled me to the gold, I cculdn’t have it. The gold was in the seals, you see, who were literal- ly worth their weight in gold. Disap- pointing, wasn’t it? ” I told her that I thought it was, and she continued: 3 “The only ride I had while I was there was a ride to Northeast Point, | where the largest seal rockeries in the world are. We drove a mule team and had a jolly time of it. It was an im- pressing’ and never to be forgotten sight, for as far as the eye could reach | one could see nothing but seals, seals, seals. We stayed there all night and returned home next day.” After looking at a few more curios I said good-by and took my leave. “Be sure you call again, and I'll show you some cther odd things,” called Mrs. Lutz as I descended the stair. G. S. —_——— Green rests the eye, the resting the eye often means to rest the nerves, and the refreshment of the eye is as necessary to comfortable life as the re- ne:rl of the other bodily forces by fox